The Bar Council is being sued by lawyer T Vijayandran for RM160 million after he was prevented from holding the launching ceremony of his second book, “Presumed Guilty”, in the council’s auditorium.

malaysian bar council Vijayandran, who filed the suit this morning at the Kuala Lumpur High Court claims that the Bar Council prevented him from using the auditorium based on a pending investigation into his first book, “No Intention to Kill”, published in 2008 for breach of publicity rules.

“The Bar is discriminating my right to use the auditorium. (And the reason given) is frivolous.

“As a paying member of the Bar, I should be allowed to use the facility,” he said.

“The Bar Council premises had been rented out to various members of the Malaysian Bar as well as non-members of the Malaysian Bar for various purposes which includes book launches,” added the lawyer who has been practising for two decades.

Vijayandran also claims that his first book has been sold at the Bar Council premises and he had paid the council almost 50 per cent of the sales proceeds for the books sold at the premise.

“The reason is preposterous because they were selling the (first) book last year and did not raise any issue about breaches at that time.”

Council says Vijayandran has right to sue

The Bar Council is investigating Vijayandran on a breach of Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules 2001 which states that in any advertisement placed by a legal firm, there should be no mention of any case which a lawyer in the firm has won.

This becomes a contentious issue as the first book is written by a person’s point of view creating a possible avenue for advertising. Vijayandran’s stand is that the book is not an advertisement.

That particular rule was amended two weeks ago allowing lawyers to do otherwise.

The council is to look into this case during their meeting in mid-June but Vijayandran claims that he has been waiting since April and it has caused him mental anguish.

The Bar Council when contacted said that Vijayandran has the right of any citizen (to sue) and that the Bar Council is not above the law.

“If he feels that the Bar Council has done him wrong and he cannot wait for the council’s decision than let the court decide,” said the council’s secretary, George Varughese.

The first book, “No Intention to Kill”, was a tale about the reversal of the decision by the Shah Alam High Court by the Federal Court on the case of an 18-year-old Indonesian maid accused of murdering of her employer. The second book is about a mother who has been detained for drug trafficking.